Post-secondary institutions have sent a stern letter to the B.C. government in response to the recent provincial budget, which ordered them to trim administrative spending by $70 million in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
“It is critical for government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” the presidents of 25 schools write in a letter to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto.
“It is particularly concerning that in Budget 2012, the post-secondary sector is the only social sector to receive an absolute budget reduction, with the inference that other sectors, such as health, have taken action where we have not.
“We must be clear that it is unrealistic to assume that the reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”
The letter was described as unprecedented in an NDP release in mid-March (which would have been reported here earlier had it not been landed on the eve of the BCTF AGM). Find the letter here.
“We have a shared commitment to a strong post-secondary education systen and we do not want to see a decline in a system that is seen as one of the best in the world,” says the letter, whose signatories include Stephen Toope of UBC, Andrew Petter of SFU and David Turpin of the University of Victoria.
Read The Vancouver Sun full article here.
By JANET STEFFENHAGEN March 26, 2012. 11:58 am • Section: Report Card
© The Vancouver Sun